A rope-handle shopping bag is made by attaching an U-shaped rope length to a patch made of heavier material than the bag web. The patch is then glued or hot melted to the bag web. The two sides of the bag web are then formed so that the positions of the handles are matched on each side of the bag. Rope handles are mostly made of twisted paper and are most often attached to bags made of paper, although plastic materials are also used for both the handles and the bag webs.
In the last decade or so, the plastic bag industry has been through difficult times because of the ecological concerns generated by the final disposal of plastic products in general. Many countries around the world are banning the use of plastics and reverting to paper for manufacturing packaging products. Environmental management systems such as ISO 14,000™ have been introduced to industries across the world in an effort to better control the growth of our landfill sites and the reduction of greenhouse and ozone layer depleting gases emanating from these sites. In numerous instances during the introduction of these new standards, paper has been cited as being a preferred material of manufacture for packaging products, because paper is recyclable and is harmlessly biodegradable, and therefore it is environmentally friendly.
Research conducted in the retail market has shown that shoppers have a preference for paper when it comes to handled shopping bags. Although paper grocery bag usage in North America is in the decline, no such decline has been seen in the use of paper in speciality shopping bags. It is believed that the market demand for paper shopping bags will be maintained or will improved in the future.
Rope handle forming machines currently available are extremely large and complicated. Some are integrated into large bag making machine, which are not practical for rapid change in sizes and to meet the needs of manufacturers who do small runs of various sizes at slower speeds. Also, because of the high cost and complexity of machinery currently available to manufacturers of shopping bags, much of this work has gone to third world countries where the work is done by hand.
Examples of prior art rope handle forming apparatus are described and illustrated in the following documents:    U.S. Pat. No. 2,224,040 issued to C. G. Eaton et al. on Dec. 3, 1940;    U.S. Pat. No. 2,844,075 issued to J. S. Davis et al. on Jul. 22, 1958;    U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,033 issued to D. V. Bonsor on Aug. 20, 1963;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,350 issued to G. Maccalli on Sep. 27, 1994;    U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,166 issued to D. R. James et al. on Jan. 12, 1999.
Although the devices and apparatus of the prior art deserve undeniable merits, it is believed that a market demand still exists for a rope handle making machine that can lower the cost of manufacture of handled shopping bags through lower investment in the machine; higher productivity through faster speeds and less maintenance due to the simplicity of the design. It is believed that a market demand still exists for a rope handle forming machine that can be incorporated into traditional rotary cutoff bag formation machines to easily convert them to shopping bag manufacturing machines.